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Thursday, August 29, 2013

One Kitchen, Many Hearts - The Office Edition

While I'd love to be able to tell you that I sit around all day and think of hilariously pithy things to post in Twitter, the fact is that I have two full-time jobs. I teach, and I am a mom of one very busy four-year-old. Since I actually work from home, those two jobs generally overlap, and sometimes I just want to run screaming from the house because of everything on my to do list that I know will never be place on the done pile.
The rest of our One Kitchen, Many Hearts "gang of seven" are in similar situations. Among us, we're juggling parenthood, school, and careers. Our blogs allow us to have an outlet where we can be creative and even selfish when we need to be.

As such, we felt that it was appropriate to theme this month's round of gift giving as "Office Essentials."
And while I love new office organizational tools and get a little giddy each time I buy a new calendar (which I use as my running log), we naturally allowed a creative license to be taken, as sometimes essentials for work aren't just needed 9-5.
Kat, who is my soul sister in so many ways, shipped me exactly what I needed to keep on keepin' on in my home office, where sometimes my main essential is to try to see my desk under all the princesses, My Little Ponies, and fairies.

Nail polish and beer. Specifically, a sampling of one of Kat's favorite breweries, New Glarus Brewing Company. Pictured above was their Two Women lager, a collaborative effort with a sister brewery (almost literally - both breweries are run by women), and Moon Man No Coast pale ale. I am not normally a fan of pale ales and really don't care of IPAs, but holy pine! This was fantastic! I'm sold.
Now, you may be worried that since the beer came in a package intended for the office, I'm drinking on the job. Fear not. My office is blue. But it's nice to know that after a long, hard day, there is something delicious waiting for me in the fridge.
As for the nail polish, well, duh. The necessity of colorful mitts and paws in any situation, office or otherwise, goes without saying.

Case in point - my first taste was the Berliner Weiss, which was crisp and citrusy and refreshing to the point of ridiculous. In the best way.

And then.

This.

And yes, it came out of the package just like this, emitting an almost holy glow that spoke of the wonders inside.
Kat has talked about Dragon's Milk for... ever. She told someone the other day that it is "the best of all beers" and recommended to me that I savor it with a cookie, which I plan to do this weekend after my long run (it just so happens that Jeanne sent HRH and me a batch of oatmeal cookies that, if I can keep my grubby mitts off them, I can enjoy with the Dragon's Milk). I will keep you posted, but if the other three bottles were any indication, this one is going to be heavenly.

There were also some chocolate candies that Kat picked up while she was on the European adventure of a lifetime, but sadly, they did not survive to have their photos taken. I can assure you that their deaths were delicious.

Now, HRH has gotten to an age at which she assumes any package that comes to our door is actually for her. She's cute like that. I guess Kat knew she was expected to provide, and provide she did.

HRH directed this photo shoot to prominently feature her ponies.

At nearly five, HRH is actually able to comprehend books that are more in depth than this, but this is actually perfect for her right now. The princesses are a given. She loves them. But right now, we've taken a few steps back with her books in order to practice her new-found reading skills. She gets a little overwhelmed when there are too many words on a page, and if there are unfamiliar words, she'll start to shut down. This book only has a handful of words per page, and HRH can read this one with comfort, and even though it's really, really, REALLY repetitive for us, that repetition is giving her confidence as a reader.
So much, in fact, that she took the book to school for Show and Tell today. Her plans are to read the book for her classmates.

***INSERT MOM SLASH ENGLISH MAJOR HEART EXPLODING WITH PRIDE***

Kat also sent what is probably the most essential office item - a new coloring and activity book for HRH to use while I'm working. HRH is at that age at which she can play by herself a lot of the time, but she also wants to do things with me, and I'm increasingly feeling guilty about the fact that I just can't.
This was a fantastic and fun spin on what I might need to fight the daily office drudgeries, and I"m immensely grateful to Kat for putting so much thought into it.
Also, we are currently negotiating a marshmallows-for-beer swap situation that I think will benefit both parties immensely.

But check out all the other office goodies that were sent; you may discover something you didn't know you needed for YOUR office.